Ujjal Dosanjh: Admit honour killings for what they are

‘Political correctness prevents us from demanding that the cultural norms that justify such heinous practices as honour killings have no place anywhere in the world’

By Ujjal Dosanjh

Nothing better describes the motivation for the dishonourable crime of honour killing than the words of Aqsa Parvez’s killer, her father: “My community will say you have not been able to control your daughter. This is my insult. She is making me naked.” The whole notion of “honour” is tied to male control of a female’s life, including her sexuality.

In 2000, the United Nations estimated that 5,000 women and girls are murdered every year in honour killings, a term that masks the brutality of the crime it describes. In some cases, women are even killed because they have been raped. While such murders are particularly prevalent in the countries of the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East and parts of Africa, as we are seeing, they also happen in the Western world.

In Britain, it’s estimated that a dozen women are killed every year in the name of “honour.” And Aqsa’s murder was not the first such crime in Canada. Amandeep Atwal, 17, was stabbed to death in 2003 by her father. Many suspect similar motives lie behind the deaths of the Shafi sisters — Zainab, 19, Sahar, 17 and Geeti, 13 — who drowned in a car in Kingston, Ont., last year. Their parents and brother face murder charges. Johra Kaleki of Dorval, Que., faces attempted murder charges for attacking her daughter with a kitchen knife last weekend — allegedly after she stayed out all night.

There is a huge misconception that these crimes occur because of certain religious beliefs. There is no religion that condones the murder of women. It’s the feudal/patriarchal culture of male dominance and control that’s the culprit. For example, in the Indian sub-continent, and in the Indian diaspora, such killings happen among people of many different faiths. The irrationality surrounding the notion of “family honour” provides cover for brutality and inhumanity.

In countries such as Canada, Britain, and the United States, the lack of courage to offend, if necessary and appropriate, prevents us from examining why and how this evil persists. As Aisha Gill, a professor of criminology at Roehampton University in London, asserts, “There is an assumption that sensitivity to cultural diversity requires certain actions to pass uncontested, even when they are in conflict with fundamental human rights.” In other words, political correctness prevents us from demanding that the cultural norms that justify such heinous practices as honour killings have no place anywhere in the world. We must never be too sensitive to call a spade a spade.

While no particular faith condones honour killings, very little is being done by any faith to use the pulpit to denounce and challenge this horrible phenomenon. Every other day you hear edicts being issued by different faiths over one aspect or another of the adherents’ lives. Why not edicts against honour killings? All of us in positions of leadership, secular or religious, are complicit in the deafening silence on this issue. We have failed Canadians by not expressing robust denunciation of each of these crimes.

Attitudes and values must and do change. Only our silence stands in the way.
National Post

Ujjal Dosanjh is the Member of Parliament for Vancouver South and former premier of British Columbia